THE HUNT FOR A SNIPER: THE SCENE; Richmond Is Jolted by a Sniper's Attack and Its Aftermath as Well

They unleashed the Blackhawk helicopter, the SWAT team, scores of federal agents and even a spy plane.

But by day's end, the big sting that the authorities said went down in the suburbs of of Richmond, with two men collared in a white minivan, appeared to be worth as much as so many other leads in the sniper investigation: absolutely nothing.

The two men who were hauled away by a black-clad SWAT team were immigrant laborers, guilty of no more than working without papers. But they had the bad luck of pulling up to a phone booth the sniper may have used, in a white minivan, right at the moment the police were watching.

''It looks like they were in the wrong place at the wrong time,'' an F.B.I. official said. ''It was one of those coincidences.''

People in Richmond were stunned as they watched the news trucks with their satellite dishes and yellow-slickered journalists roar into town and then roar off. At the Exxon station in Henrico County where the police arrested the two men, a crowd gathered to watch officers pry up manhole covers with their fingertips and shake bushes for ''evidence.'' Now they had to go home, with no good story to tell.

''This is crazy, man,'' said Mark Deering, a mechanic who saw this morning's arrest. ''They need to catch this guy.''

Until Saturday, Richmond was not part of the sniper frenzy. More than 100 miles south of Washington, people here were not crouching behind gas pumps, not canceling soccer practice, nor checking the rooftops. It was not their hometown sheriff on television but somebody else's.

But that all changed after the sniper shot a 37-year-old man on Saturday night in a Ponderosa Steakhouse parking lot in Ashland, north of Richmond, leaving him in critical condition. Ballistic tests released today confirmed that shooting was linked to the 11 sniper attacks in the Washington area.

The authorities in metropolitan Richmond, which has about one million residents, responded more drastically than anywhere else, closing all public schools today and Tuesday, much to the annoyance of many parents.

''Parents have to rearrange schedules,'' said Jane McCarthy, whose two children, ages 8 and 12, attend suburban Richmond schools. ''It's not like I don't fear for my kids' safety, but where are they going to be anyway?''

Richmond officials said there was no other way to guarantee the children's safety.

There was a sense today, in the empty food courts and at the lonely gas stations, that people were staying home.

''It's what terrorism does,'' said D. Ray Davis, 42, who sat with friends at a usually crowded mall that was quiet today. ''You shoot a few people and you put everyone in fear.''

Around 8 a.m., Mr. Deering, the auto mechanic, stepped out of the garage at the Royal Oldsmobile dealership to see two officers squinting through a pair of binoculars at a phone booth across the street.

''They looked ready to spring,'' said Mr. Deering, 38.

An F.B.I. official said agents staked out phone booths on a stretch of West Broad Street because there had been a suspicious call from one of them, possibly from the sniper. The person who left a note at the scene of Saturday's shooting mentioned the number of a pay phone in Richmond. He wrote that he wanted someone in law enforcement to go to the pay phone to receive a call. The phone booth sits right outside the Exxon station.

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The official added: ''What are the odds that two guys would drive up in a white van on a day like today?''

But at 8:35 a.m., that is exactly what happened. Two laborers, one Mexican, one Guatemalan, pulled up to the phone booth in a Plymouth Voyager minivan, much like the Chevy Astro minivan the authorities think the sniper is driving.

That is when a three-member SWAT team sprinted toward the vehicle with rifles drawn, screaming, ''Get out! Get out! Get out of the car!'' As mechanics huddled in the garage across the street, the black-clad officers yanked the driver out of the van sideways, pinned him to the pavement and hauled him away.

''They looked like they were going to shoot him,'' Mr. Deering said.

Pathenia Fields, a receptionist at Royal Olds, said, ''They bum-rushed him,'' and Keith Underwood, the service manager, said, ''They had some big long guns.'' .

Shortly after the driver was arrested, his friend was scooped up at a gas station across the street. Then the Richmond authorities put out a bulletin summoning all news media to a news conference at 1 p.m. They even put up a tent for reporters to protect them from the drizzle.

At the news conference, few questions were answered.

The Hanover County sheriff, V. Stuart Cook, announced, ''The two people we have in custody are being questioned in regards to the sniper shootings.''

''Do you have the shooter?'' someone shouted out.

''Is this your man?'' another asked.

The sheriff would not say. Two weary eyes stared back from a sphinx-like face.

By midafternoon, rumors leaked out that there was no sniper suspect. And at 6 p.m., the Richmond authorities called reporters back.

''Two men were detained and questioned by local and federal authorities,'' said Sgt. Tom Shumate of Henrico County police department. ''They are now in the custody of the I.N.S.''

He did not say anything else.

Russell Bergeron, spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington, said the two men would be charged with being illegally in United States and face deportation. He did not disclose their names.

Several officials with the F.B.I., the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the immigration service said that the pair had nothing to do with the sniper case.

''Wrong place, wrong time,'' was what many officials said.

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A version of this article appears in print on October 22, 2002, on Page A00026 of the National edition with the headline: THE HUNT FOR A SNIPER: THE SCENE; Richmond Is Jolted by a Sniper's Attack and Its Aftermath as Well. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe